Keil Andreas, Freund Alexandra M
Department of Psychology and NIMH Center for the Study of Emotion & Attention, University of Florida, P.O. Box 112766, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Psychol Aging. 2009 Sep;24(3):668-80. doi: 10.1037/a0016969.
In 2 cross-sectional studies, the authors examined age-related differences in the evaluation of emotional stimuli in 2 community samples, with participants ranging in age from young to older adulthood (18-81 years old). Pictures of the International Affective Picture System were used in Study 1, and written verbs were used in Study 2. Participants rated these stimuli along the 2 major affective dimensions of hedonic valence and emotional arousal, thus yielding a 2-dimensional affective space for each participant. Young adults showed the expected pattern of 2 distinct clusters of stimuli in this space, representing increasing pleasantness (appetitive activation) and unpleasantness (aversive activation) with increasing emotional arousal. In contrast, for older adults, emotional valence and arousal ratings were linearly related: Low-arousing stimuli were rated as most pleasant, and high-arousing stimuli were rated as most unpleasant. When regressed on age, these changes revealed a gradual decrease of appetitive activation (i.e., the relationship between pleasure and arousal) across adulthood and a linear increase in aversive activation (i.e., the relationship between displeasure and arousal). These results extend previous work on emotional development, adding information as to the role of emotional intensity for affective experience in different age groups.
在两项横断面研究中，作者在两个社区样本中考察了对情绪刺激评估的年龄相关差异，参与者年龄范围从青年到老年（18 - 81岁）。研究1使用了国际情感图片系统的图片，研究2使用了书面动词。参与者沿着享乐效价和情绪唤起这两个主要情感维度对这些刺激进行评分，从而为每个参与者生成一个二维情感空间。在这个空间中，年轻人呈现出预期的两种不同刺激簇的模式，随着情绪唤起增加，代表愉悦感增加（食欲激活）和不愉悦感增加（厌恶激活）。相比之下，对于老年人，情绪效价和唤起评分呈线性相关：低唤起刺激被评为最愉悦，高唤起刺激被评为最不愉悦。当以年龄为自变量进行回归分析时，这些变化表明在成年期食欲激活（即愉悦感与唤起之间的关系）逐渐下降，而厌恶激活（即不愉悦感与唤起之间的关系）呈线性增加。这些结果扩展了先前关于情绪发展的研究工作，补充了关于情绪强度在不同年龄组情感体验中作用的信息。
